Absinthe: The Forbidden Spirit

Absinthe became synonymous with the artists and bohemians of nineteenth-century Paris, but its story begins far from the city, in the valleys of the Jura along the border of Switzerland and France. Swiss journalist Tania Brasseur and photographer Tamara Berger travel through this “absinthe valley” to trace the history of the Green Fairy in the place where it was born and continues to be made. 

Brasseur explores the botany and production of absinthe, its extraordinary rise in popularity, and the fears surrounding the drink that led to its prohibition in the early twentieth century. In Switzerland, where making absinthe remained illegal until 2005, distillers continued producing it clandestinely, preserving techniques and traditions through nearly a century of prohibition. 

The book is equally concerned with absinthe’s present. Brasseur meets distillers and others who helped bring about its legal revival, while contemporary recipes show how the spirit has found a new life in cooking and drinking. 

More than 100 photographs by Berger, herself from the Val-de-Travers, document the landscape, plants, producers, and communities surrounding absinthe today. Together, the reporting and photography offer a portrait of both a famously misunderstood spirit and the region that kept it alive. 

Hardcover. Illustrations and color photographs throughout.